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New in paperback, this is a book for fans of the golden era of Formula 1. Aimed at motor historians and enthusiasts, this is the first, and the last, word on these fabulous 'ground effect' racing cars. Superbly illustrated with 170 black & white photographs, 20 color photographs and the original working drawings and the cutaways of Tony Matthews. John Tipler is a freelance motoring writer and historian with numerous books on motorsport topics to his credit.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Tipler is a freelance motoring writer and historian who contributes to numerous motoring magazines and has written many books on the subject. His extensive background in the motor industry includes spells in the John Player Motorsport Press Office, and at the Motor Industry Research Unit. His interest spreads across many makes and models, but he is inevitably drawn towards sporting cars, classics, and motorbikes. He lives in Norfolk England.

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This book delivers on the promise of its title. It gives a comprehensive history of the development and race history of the Lotus Type 78 and 79. It includes several excellent appendices on all the F1 cars made by Lotus and their histories in competition.

The presentation is handicapped by the small page size, tiny type face for quotes, and dark black and white photographs of cars under construction. It should be a coffee table sized book with large clear drawings of the skirts and the underside of the chassis and side pods. It also spends too much time on Colin Chapman's management style and the team's facilities.

The only drawings of the Type 78 and 79 are views of the complete car. They are very small with thin lines. There are better drawings of the Type 88 in last chapter. The many black and white photographs of the cars during construction do a poor job of showing the key components.

Some other reviews have mentioned the poor quality of the illustrations. They're right. Not all that good. I doubt it would have been awfully hard to do about 300% better. That's why it got 4 instead of 5 stars. Everything else about this book is great! I'll be using it in my Chassis Engineering class when we get to the aerodynamics section. It's packed with good information and history!

This is a great history of the initial "wing car" concept. Lotus wins races w/ innovative ideas and this book proves it! I love the interviews w/ the small crew of brilliant minds who put into reality the ideas of a true racing genius, Colin Chapman. It is amazing that they created this by slide rule, "what if" concepts and experimentation that is now replaced w/ huge teams and computer imaging. Could Ross Brawn's winner been built by any other means? It is a very enlightening book and a great book for any motor racing enthusiast.

This book does an excellent job of balancing admiration for the Lotus people and drivers, and criticism when needed. It has much inside information and many inside photos and drawings from Lotus and Ford. The technical discussion has some depth, and none of it is speculative. Also some asides on the personalities involved, which prevent any monotony. Many B-W and about 30 color pictures. Covers in enough depth the Lotus F1 cars before and after the 78/79.

This book combines two things I love. Racing and history! Excellent book with great background on a “ground”breaking car (pun intended). I thoroughly enjoyed it especially like the photos showing interior of the race car.

The author is a poor writer - problems with syntax and confusing sentence structure. His "Britishisms" are likely to be confusing and vague to most American readers. If you are looking for a technical examination of how the 78 and 79 worked as far as the ground effects principles go - look elsewhere.; this is more an "inside Lotus" book.